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By Nasir Kura
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday blamed the National Assembly for the delay in the presentation of 2019 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Udoma Udo Udoma, said the inability of the leadership to communicate date for the presentation of the budget was responsible for the delay.
He said the executive is ready for the presentation of the budget estimates.
“As you already know, the budget is ready. We are liaising with the National Assembly because they are to give us a date. If they say today, we will go. The budget is ready,” he said.
The FEC had on October 24 approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for the 2019-2021 to provide template for the 2019 budget.
The council approved a budget estimate of N8.73 trillion for the 2019, N400 billion lower than the 2018 budget.
He said N305 was proposed as exchange rate to the US dollar, with government working to keep inflation down after slight increases in the last two months on the heels of 18 months consecutive decline.
According to him, the projected target gross domestic product growth rate for the budget was put at 3.01 per cent, reduced from 4.5 per cent in the ERGP; 3.6 per cent in 2020 and 3.9 per cent in 2021.
“Growth is expected to increase from 0.8 per cent in 2017 to 2.1 per cent this year and 3.01 per cent in 2019 with the continued implementation of the ERGP in 2019 and improved outlook for oil prices,” he said.
On revenue projections, the minister said government expects N3.6 trillion from oil, up by about N500 billion from last year’s figure based on the oil price and oil production assumptions.
The minister also told journalists the council also expressed happiness with the country’s GDP growth rate which rose to to 1.81 per cent in third quarter report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
He said: “The report indicates that the economy when measured by real GDP grew at 1.81 percent in the third quarter 2018, compared to 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the FEC was particularly encouraged to note that economic growth continues to be driven by the non oil sector which grew by 3.32 percent in the third quarter. This has been the strongest growth in non-oil GDP in 12 consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of 2015.
“By economic activity, non oil growth was driven by transportation, electricity, telecommunication, metal oils, quarry and so on. In addition, agriculture and manufacturing sectors also grew, agriculture by 1.91 percent manufacturing by 1.92 percent these are stronger growth than in the second quarter.
“So overall, council mostly is encouraged by these results shows improvement in the economy, it also shows that our plans are working it equally shows that we need to intensify our economy and keep fit with our reforms through continuous implementation of the ERGP in order to continue to attract investments and set the economy on a more sustainable inclusive growth trajectory and council is encouraged by this and believes we should be able to do even better in the 4th quarter.”
